A27017:1660
The Saints' Everlasting Rest
The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is showed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is shewed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by Rob. White for Thomas Underhil and Francis Tyton, 1650
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1SECT. VII.
- 1§. 7.
5. Consider, The diligent keeping of your hearts on heaven, will preserve the vigour of all your graces, and put life into all your duties. Its the heavenly Christian, that is the lively Christian. Its our strangeness to Heaven that makes us so dull: Its the end that quickeneth to all the means: And the more frequently and clearly this end is beheld, the more vigorous will all our motion be. How doth it make men unweariedly labour, and fearlessly venture, when they do but think of the gainful prize? How will the Soldier hazard his life? and the Mariner pass through storms and waves? how cheerfully do they compass sea and land, and no difficulty can keep them back, when they think of an uncertain perishing treasure. O, what life then would it put into a Christians endeavours, if he would frequently forethink of his everlasting Treasure? We run so slowly, and strive so lazily, because we so little mind the prize. When a Christian hath been tasting the hidden Manna, and drinking of the streams of the Paradise of God; what life doth this Ambrosia and Nectar put into him? How fervent will his spirit be in prayer, when he considers that he prays for no less then Heaven? If Enoch, Elijah, or any of the Saints, who are now in Heaven, and have partook of the vision of the living God, should be sent down to the earth again to live on the terms as we now do, would they not strive hard? and pray earnestly, rather then lose that blessed Rest? No wonder, for they would know what it is they pray for. Its true, we cannot know it here so throughly as they: yet if we would but get as high as we can, and study but that which may now be known, it would strangely alter both our spirits and our duties. Observe but the man who is much in heaven, and you shall see he is not like other Christians: There is somewhat of that which he hath seen above, appeareth in all his duty and conversation: Nay, take but the same man, immediately when he is returned from these views of Bliss, and you shall easily perceive that he excels himself, as if he were not indeed the same as before: If he be a Preacher, how heavenly are his Sermons? what clear descriptions? what high expressions? what savoury passages hath he of that Rest? If he be a private Christian, what heavenly conference? what heavenly prayers? what a heavenly carriage